2018 saw record growth in LGBTQ roles on television

2018 has been a bad year for the LGBTQ community in politics, but it’s been a record-breaking year in media, according to GLAAD’s annual TV diversity report. LGBTQ representation on television hit a record high this year, with 8.8 percent out of 857 series regulars on broadcast TV openly identified as on the gay, trans, or queer spectrum. And for the first time, LGBTQ people of color outnumbered white LGBTQ characters on-screen by 50 to 49 percent.

GLAAD counted 26 trans characters on TV, which is nine more than last year. A significant percentage of that progress was driven by Ryan Murphy’s new series Pose on FX, which has five new trans characters.

For the first time in three years, the number of bisexual+ men rose, clocking in at 33,…